


Here

by clearascountryair



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, If you want the romance there will be a more shippy follow up, You can read it as either romantic or platonic Zutara, ish, ish?, katara finds out about zuko's scar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25534240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearascountryair/pseuds/clearascountryair
Summary: After the final Agni Kai, Zuko questions his place in this new world that they’re creating.  Katara doesn’t have all of the answers, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try.
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	Here

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks, agentcalliope for beta-ing and informing me that I should write a scar fic as my inaugural fic for the fandom

Katara is sitting on the floor of the bathing room in Zuko’s private quarters. She is wearing Zuko’s own bathrobe and waiting,  _ waiting _ for a letter, a sign, anything to tell them that their friends are alive and Ozai is gone. She sent Appa off nearly an hour ago, but even for him, it’ll be a long time before he arrives at Iroh’s camp with news of Azula’s defeat and hers and Zuko’s survival. And it will be even longer before she gets a response. So now she is doing what she can to distract herself, throwing her everything into healing the half-dressed Firelord in the bathtub before her, even when they both know that she has done all that she can.

This was never where she expected herself to be. And as Katara kneels on the cold marble floor, bending the bathwater over the freshly marred skin of Zuko’s chest, she can’t help the small laugh that bursts out of her. Zuko opens his eyes and looks at her. There’s less pain in them than before and she smiles.

“My life has gone in a lot of unexpected directions,” she explains. “But giving the Firelord, who’s also my best friend, a bath might be the wildest one. I’m imagining telling a ten year old me about it.”

Zuko laughs and grunts in pain, but doesn’t stop smiling. “I’m just imagining telling a three-months-ago you. At least I still have shorts on.”

He adds, “You’re my best friend, too.” And then, “I never actually thought I’d be here.”

“Letting some waterbender help you in the bath?” she asks, even though she knows that’s not what he means.

“Being Firelord.”

She squeezes his shoulder. “You’re going to be amazing,” she tells him, sitting back on her heels. “A natural born leader.”

He surprises her then, leaning his head to the side and resting his cheek against her hand. “I wasn’t born to do this, though,” he says. “My cousin, Lu Ten, should have been here.” He sighs. “I was actually a happy kid, you know?”

Using the hand that isn’t on him, she goes back to bending the bathwater over his stomach. “That’s a good thing.”

“But only before I was the crown prince. I was never happy here as crown prince.”

Katara says nothing. Even as his silence goes on, she knows that it is his to break and she will be there when he does. After a few minutes, he lifts his head and looks at her.

“My mother disappeared the same night my father took the throne. That’s actually too passive. My father disappeared her. I’m still learning the details.”

_ The Fire Nation took my mother away from me. _

_ I’m sorry. That’s something we have in common. _

She remembers the conversation like it’s from a different life. “You said that he took her away from you once. I just...I guess I didn’t fully understand.” This time, she reaches out and rests her palm on his left cheek. Zuko closes his eyes.

“I’m still understanding, too,” he whispers as though it’s some sort of shameful confession. 

“Is that why you still can’t see yourself as Firelord?”

Zuko shakes his head. “No, I could. For a while at least, but…”

He turns his head just slightly into her palm, his breath almost warm enough against her hand. She watches as the color rises in his cheeks and she wants to tell him that there’s no shame in being sad or scared. But she’s seen him as both before. She knows that’s not what is causing him shame. In the back of her mind, she hears the rest of their conversation in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se play out and thinks of the banished prince and his quest for the Avatar. 

She won’t ask, she won’t pry, but she can’t help but realize that she doesn’t know what he was banished for. Instead, she tells him, “You earned your crown, Zuko. Not many monarchs can say that.”

To her surprise, he straightens up and shakes his head. “I know you believe that, Katara. And I know you believe that that is a good thing.” When the pain flashes through his eyes this time, Katara knows it’s not from his wound. She drops her bending hand to her side.

“I know that you think it’s the right thing to say and that it’s noble,” he continues, “but the condition of my return to the line of succession was to find and capture the Avatar. I’m here because I have a duty to make reparations for the crimes of my ancestors, not because I’ve earned a spot among them.”

“Zuko…” She wants to say more. She wants to tell him that his father doesn’t matter. He’s earned his title in the people’s eyes. In her eyes. She wishes she knew what to say, what he wants to hear. Instead, she lets him talk.

“It was a fool’s errand,” he says, looking down. “I know that now, I do. Maybe even then. I kept fighting for it, you know. To come back here. But maybe deep down I knew I’d never please him. So I’ve never been able to picture myself here.”

With a sharp exhale, he looks back up at her. “Do you think he knew I’d make it back here anyway? Is that why I have this? So that I always remember that he doesn’t want me here?” He presses his hand into the left side of his face and, though his voice cracks, he doesn’t cry. Not yet. “Is that why he gave me this?”

She can’t help the way her breath hitches when he says it. She knows Ozai is evil ( _ was _ evil, she reminds herself, because Aang had to have won by now. He had to). She knows he is cruel and vindictive and wicked. But Zuko is his son, she reasons, even as another part of her mind says that Ozai banished his son, his own son, with an impossible task of redemption.

“He said I dishonored him.” His voice is barely audible as he straightens again in the water. His breathing is harsh as though it can’t decide between anger and grief. He reaches out the hand that’s not over his face and Katara takes it between her own. “He said I dishonored him and there was an Agni Kai and I didn’t know it was going to be him, Katara. I knew he killed his own father, usurped his brother, destroyed his wife. But I didn’t think that he would...that he would—I was thirteen! I was thirteen. And it doesn’t matter what I do know because my face is a reminder to everyone that I am not supposed to be here.”

“No!” He freezes at that and she’s almost embarrassed at her outburst, but she rises up on her knees and takes his face in her hands and wills herself not to cry. “Your face, Zuko,” she tells him fiercely, “is a reminder that you are a survivor. That when confronted with the ultimate cruelty and evil and when tempted by the most corrupt powers, you are good. And you are caring and brave and honorable, Zuko. Your destiny is repairing the world and it’s going to be amazing.”

He stares at her. And he breaks. His shoulders hunch and his head comes forward and he presses his face into her shoulder. She wraps her arms around him and holds him tight because there are some things that her bending cannot begin to heal. And there are things that don’t heal, that just fade into scars. But she tells him in a soft whisper into his hair that he is not alone. He believes her.

After several minutes, his breathing slows and she helps him stand. He even lets her drape a towel over him as he steps out of the tub and once more into her arms. He tries to smile.

“Bet you didn’t think you’d ever be here.”

“No,” she says. “But I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”


End file.
